Brigadier Tim Landon

12:01AM BST 12 Jul 2007

Brigadier Tim Landon, who died on July 6 aged 64, was a remarkable, if mysterious, figure in the obscure world of Middle Eastern politics; his particular theatre was Oman, where he is said to have helped organise a (peaceful) coup d'état and to have amassed a fortune of more than £200 million.

The foundation of Landon's success was his friendship with Sultan Qaboos bin Said. The two men had been contemporaries at Sandhurst, and went on to serve in different regiments of the British Army. Landon's introduction to Oman came in the late 1960s, when he was appointed a junior Intelligence Officer in Dhofar, working under Brigadier Malcolm Dennison.

At the time Oman was ruled by Qaboos's father, Sultan Said bin Taimour, and was involved in a struggle against Communist insurgents. Landon is thought to have helped Qaboos, with the connivance of the British government, to overthrow his father in 1970.

As the new Sultan's military adviser and confidant, Landon was in a position to help broker arms deals to re-equip the armed forces of the oil-rich, strategically-placed, pro-Western Gulf state; he could also facilitate development contracts for British companies.

According to John Beasant, author of Oman: The True Drama and Intrigue of an Arab State, Landon's great achievement was to assist a young and inexperienced ruler in the application of good governance and in the creation of a modern state. And over the years Qaboos rewarded him well for his loyalty; Landon became a rich man.

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John Timothy Whittington Landon was born on August 20 1942 on Vancouver Island, the son of an English Army officer and a Canadian mother. He was educated at Eastbourne College and Sandhurst, before being commissioned into the 10th Royal Hussars.

Landon went to Oman, probably as a contract officer (rather than as one seconded by his parent regiment), and was put in command of Recce Troop, Muscat Regiment. There was, however, a shortage of Intelligence Officers in the southern region of Dhofar, so he left the regiment and went there as an assistant IO.

By this time both the British government and the oil company Petroleum Development Oman had begun to believe that Qaboos - who, after Sandhurst, had served in Germany with the Cameronians - would be a better prospect as Sultan than his reactionary father. This analysis, however, had not escaped Said bin Taimour himself who, on his son's return to Oman, had placed him under house arrest on the coast at Salalah.

Qaboos was allowed to receive visitors approved by his father, and Dennison took the opportunity to have Tim Landon included in this group. It seems likely that a coup became the principal topic of discussion.

In the event Landon took no direct part in the coup itself. On the afternoon of July 23 1970 Said was at his palace in Salalah when he was confronted by Sheikh Braik Al Ghafri and a British Army officer, Major Spike Powell, who told him he had to go. There was no serious bloodshed, although Said drew a pistol from beneath his robe, accidentally shooting himself in the foot; meanwhile, a member of the palace guard shot and wounded Sheikh Braik.

Later the Sultan was presented with an instrument of abdication by Lt-Col Edward Turnill, a member of the Sultan's Desert Regiment, and was told to sign; he had little choice but to comply. While these events had been unfolding, Landon had been waiting, with Qaboos, in a house nearby.

The British had laid on an RAF Britannia, which took the deposed Sultan to Brize Norton. He ended up living in a suite at the Dorchester hotel until his death in 1972. When asked once what was his greatest regret, the old man replied: "Not having had Landon shot."

Qaboos's immediate problem was to defeat the Communist insurgency, a campaign that was to last 10 years and required the intervention of British special forces and the RAF. Oman needed to re-arm, modernise its army and create an air force; because its northern tip is on the Strait of Hormuz, through which much Gulf oil moves westwards, it also needed a navy. Landon was appointed the Sultan's military counsellor and aide-de-camp in charge of equipping the armed forces. Oman embarked on large-scale spending on defence - in 1980 alone this amounted to some £400 million.

The "White Sultan of Oman", as he became known, not only had good business sense, he also had a generous patron (the Sultan once sent him a Christmas card enclosing a cheque for £1 million) and was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

Among those who had fought against the Communists in Oman was Sir Ranulph Fiennes. When, after leaving the Army, Fiennes was seeking sponsorship for his 1980 expedition to the Antarctic he contacted Landon, whom he had known a decade earlier in Dhofar. As a result Qaboos supported the expedition; a party was held at a club in Mayfair to which British contractors who wanted to get into Oman were invited.

Landon was appointed an honorary KCVO in 1982, the year in which he helped to organise the Sultan's visit to Britain. By this time he held an Omani passport as well as his Canadian one.

Landon remained a secretive man. It is said that when in London he would travel in a private black taxi. He owned an estate (as well as the village) at Faccombe, Hampshire, where he ran an excellent shoot.

In recent years Landon had developed an interest in conservation and in exploring alternatives to fossil fuels; he installed a wind turbine at Faccombe to generate electricity for the 650-acre farm. There were rumours that he had embraced Buddhism.

Tim Landon, who had been suffering from cancer, is survived by his wife, Kata, a member of the Austro-Hungarian Esterhazy family, and their son.